Identity Profile: Saffron Plant Extract

The cultivation of saffron is an ancestral practice dating back to approximately 5,000 years BC. This precious spice is the most expensive in the world, selling between 30 and 40 euros per gram, its price following that of gold. Its high cost is due to the intensive manual labor required: 130 to 200 flowers are needed to obtain 5 grams of fresh stigmas, which will yield 1 gram of dried saffron. In the past, the purple flower of saffron adorned the heads of priests, notably in the temple of Venus, the goddess of love. In antiquity, a young man named Crocus fell in love with the nymph Smilax. This passion was bewitched when Smilax transformed him into a saffron flower. The fiery orange stigmas of this flower symbolize Crocus's immortal passion. Thus, the flower took the name Crocus sativus. It is also said that Cleopatra used saffron in the first toilet water, known as "kyphi", which later became a sacred incense for the Egyptian pharaohs. "Crocus sativus" is a Latin term derived from the Greek word "krokos", meaning filament or hair, in reference to the shape of the stigmas. The word "saffron" comes from the Latin "safranum", derived from the Arabo-Persian "za'faran" meaning yellow. The term "sativus" refers to its cultivation, as saffron is primarily grown for its stigmas.